Stone Group embarks on ‘channel blitz’ at Bett show

Stone Group, the ICT services provider, has embarked on a “channel blitz”, with the intention of doubling the number of channel resellers it works with.

The move is specifically intended to increase Stone Group’s market penetration in the education and public sector markets. Stone is using this week’s BETT 2015 show, the biggest education technology event of the year, as a platform to introduce potential partners to configurable hardware and associated services.

Talking about the new focus, Steve Norman, Stone Group’s business development director, said: “This year will see Stone put a larger emphasis on growing our channel relationships. We offer a different approach to most vendors out there in the space, as each partner – regardless of size – is personally account managed.

“We also have strict boundaries between our direct and channel teams, which means that if we are working with a partner on a specific opportunity our internal team cannot touch it.”

Norman said Stone’s 100,000 sq ft configuration facility also meant the firm’s customised hardware is often more cost effective than that of “less flexible systems integrators”.

He said: “You can get customised off-the-shelf technology with the big vendors, but it will cost you and add significantly to lead times for your project. This makes the reseller margin opportunity greater with Stone.”